CINEMATIC REVELATIONS allows me the luxury of writing, editing and archiving my film and television reviews. Some reviews appeared initially in "The Commercial Dispatch" and "The Planet Weekly" and then later in the comment archives at the Internet Movie Database. IMDB.COM, however, imposes a limit on both the number of words and the number of times that an author may revise their comments. I hope that anybody who peruses these expanded reviews will find them useful.

Translate

Saturday, July 4, 2015

FILM REVIEW OF ''JURASSIC WORLD" (2015)

“Safety Not Guaranteed” director Colin Trevorrow’s summer
blockbuster “Jurassic World” surpasses director Joe Johnston’s lackluster
“Jurassic Park 3” (2001). Comparatively, however, Steven Spielberg’s
infinitely superior “Jurassic Park” (1993) covered most of what occurs in
Trevorrow’s new monster-run-amok-in-a-theme-park movie. Despite its
attractive cast and scenic jungle locations, “Jurassic World” (*1/2 OUT OF
****) delivers considerably less suspense with its standard-issue shenanigans
about juveniles in jeopardy. If you haven’t seen the first and second
entries in the Universal Pictures’ “Jurassic Park” trilogy, this franchise
reboot with its polished production values and vigorous 3-D might amaze you,
especially if you’re sixteen years old or younger. Size is the primary
factor “Jurassic World” contends with, and Trevorrow shrewdly addresses this
issue during the first half-hour. The female protagonist who supervises the daily
operations of the dinosaur park concedes, “No one’s impressed by a dinosaur
anymore. They need to be bigger, louder and with more teeth!” Indeed, the new
hybrid dinosaur that a mad scientist has concocted represents a leap forward.
Nevertheless, this 50 feet long and 18 feet high monster doesn’t really
amount to monstrous in the overall Hollywood scheme of things. The
Indominus rex in “Jurassic World” could serve as “Godzilla’s” seeing-eye
dog. Moreover, “Jurassic World” appears to have been designed to sell
plastic toy dinosaurs. The dinos themselves display a clean-scrubbed, laminated
look. Nothing about them is scary. If you like to see your dinos in the
daylight, you’ll get to see every wrinkle and crevice on these dudes.The one dying dinosaur that our hero and
heroine comfort looks so ersatz that you want to howl instead of cry. Actually,
the dinosaurs look more frightening at night. When the franchise first rampaged
across screens with “Jurassic Park” (1993) and its sequel “Jurassic Park: The
Lost World” (1997), nothing looked as realistic and intimidating than those surly
dinosaurs, especially those aggressive Raptors. Unfortunately, the time
when “Jurassic Park” established new benchmarks for CGI is long past. The
people who made “Jurassic World” must have overlooked Peter Jackson’s “King
Kong” (2005) as well as “Godzilla” (2014). In an arena with either
of those monstrosities, the welterweight Indominus rex in “Jurassic World”
wouldn’t last a minute. In fact, the best looking leviathan in the park
is an aquatic behemoth known as a Mosasaurus that chomps on a shark carcass. If
there were ever a money shot in a movie, the sight of that huge fish lunging
out of the water to snap up that shark is definitely one.The second shot of it emerging to devour on the Pteranodon looks staggering in 3-D.The third time is surprising, but—without
spoiling your fun—it is kind of a letdown what happens.

Meantime, scenarists Rick Jaffa &Amanda Silver, who did such a
praiseworthy job with “Dawn of the Planet of the Apes” and “Rise of the Planet
of the Apes,” along with writer Rick Connolly, and Trevorrow, have drummed-up a
‘so-so sauraus’ saga. The logistics of the plot don’t hold up to
scrutiny, and the action is hopelessly outlandish. You’d think that the
employees at Jurassic World that work in the dinosaur enclosures would wear
safety harasses that would prevent them from accidently falling into the
compounds. At one point, the chief
character suspect that a dinosaur has escaped, but they neglect to look for
footprints outside the pen.Later, when
they fear that two kids have been eaten, our hero spots their tracks.Indeed, the holes in “Jurassic Park” are big
enough for a dinosaur to barrel through.More scrupulous plotting could have eliminated these shortcomings.The biggest offender is the dual deux ex
dinosaurs that takes place near the end.Again, I won’t reveal these two
instances, but the first comes out of nowhere while the second is at least
foreshadowed.Anybody who likes to
sit around and watch for those post-end credits scenes
need no dally.“Jurassic World” doesn’t
tack on anything during or after the end credits.In fact, I could think of a terrific post-end
credits scene, and I was surprised when Trevorrow didn’t ante up with it. Worse,
the scripters have created one-dimensional characters who often behave
idiotically in formulaic predicaments. For example, Bryce Dallas Howard,
who was such a revelation as a villainess in “The Help,” spends her entire time
charging around in high heels whether in the jungle or on asphalt! Chris
Pratt plays a former Navy troubleshooter who doesn’t have a lick of
sense. He brandishes a modern .45-70 lever-action carbine reminiscent of
Buffalo Bill, when he should be armed with something more substantial, such as
a Kalashnikov AK-101 assault rifle with 40mm GP-30 under-the-barrel grenade
launcher. One Jurassic World security trooper wields a powerful M136 AT4,
a Swedish-made single-shot 84mm unguided light anti-tank recoilless rocket
launcher. Naturally, like all incompetent, myopic characters, he fires
this fearsome weapon at the genetically modified dinosaur but misses!
Meantime, since the dinosaurs have neither slippery lawyers nor treacherous
laboratory employees to gobble, the writers have substituted a different
villain: security specialist Vic Hoskins (Vincent D'Onofrio of “Men In Black”)
who dreams about deploying these carnivorous Raptors for military use. Sadly,
Vic is more of an idiot so you are elated when he winds up as a dino snack like
the lawyer in the first “Jurassic Park.” Not surprisingly, everything about
this lightweight, family-oriented, PG-13 rated epic is immaculate.
Bloodshed is restricted to a drop or two of blood. Sure, you see the
dinosaurs munch on many adults, but the two imperiled children, Gray (Ty
Simpkins of “Insidious”) and Zach (Nick Robinson of “Frenemies”), suffer no
broken legs, no sprained ankles, or lose any limbs. Specifically,
anonymous bystanders are the only ones scratched, crunched, or
traumatized. So forget about suspense and tension.

Over twenty years ago, in the original “Jurassic Park” (1993)
based on Michael Crichton’s imaginative bestseller, genial billionaire John
Hammond (Richard Attenborough) fantasized about opening a dinosaur park on a
remote island near Costa Rica. Initially, everything went fine, but then
some predatory velociraptors and a cantankerous Tyrannosaurus rex ruined
everything, and the park never opened. Now, Indian billionaire Simon
Masrani (Irfan Khan of “Life of Pi”) has taken over Hammond’s Jurassic Park,
changed the name to Jurassic World, and parlayed it into a billion dollar
success story. He sets out to perpetuate Hammond’s dream, and he succeeds
on a grand scale.Masrani is in it for
the fun.He wants both the dinosaurs and
the tourists to have a great time. Happily, Jurassic World has thrived for a
decade without a single mishap. At the same time, Masrani’s workaholic
operations chief, Claire (Bryce Dallas Howard of “The Help”), has toiled
tirelessly to maintain a narrow profit margin. This means Jurassic World
must constantly add new attractions because new attractions spike attendance.
When fiendish but fastidious geneticist, Dr. Henry Wu (B.D. Wong of “Focus”),
devises a new dinosaur, he refuses to share his secret formula with either
Masrani or Claire. (“Jurassic Park”
aficionados should appreciate Wong’s appearance since he is the only actor
reprising his role from the original.)Predictably, chaos ensues with disastrous consequences. The Indominus
rex is smarter than the average dino, and this wily creature fools everybody,
including the impertinent but heroic Owen Grady (Chris Pratt of “Guardians of
the Galaxy”), who has been struggling to train a quartet of beady-eyed
Velociraptors. However, I’m not so sure that the Indominus is truly that
intelligent when you consider how stupid the humans are who let it escape from
its 40-foot high enclosure. Meantime, the bond that Grady has developed with
these overgrown, kangaroo-like predators is unconvincing. Using these
cold-blooded lizards like bloodhounds is preposterous but amusing nonsense.
Inevitably, Claire accompanies Grady on the hunt because she cannot find her
two young nephews, Gray and Zach, who have disappeared in the park where the Indominus
was last spotted. Gray and Zach are the
characters that every adolescent in the theater will identify with and
Trevorrow does put them in danger despite them never being truly
endangered.The gyro-spheres that they
roll around in are cool vehicles.“Jurassic World” has bits and pieces that impress, but altogether these
things don’t compensate for slack storytelling and a shortage of suspense. I
went into “Jurassic World” with high hopes based primarily on its killer
trailers, but I left feeling like the filmmakers simply did not live up to
their awesome potential.

Before he helmed “Jurassic World,” Colin Trevorrow directed some
Internet shorts, a TV movie, and a superb little 2012 indie flick entitled
"Safety Not Guaranteed” with Mark Duplass. “Safety Not Guaranteed”
was an amiable character-driven comedy of errors. In “Safety Not
Guaranteed,” a trio of journalists investigates a lunatic who published a
newspaper ad soliciting partners to accompany him on a trip back in time.
These time travel candidates are advised to bring their own weapons.
Reportedly, movie mogul Steven Spielberg liked Trevorrow’s film enough to sign
him up to direct “Jurassic World.” If you’re a parent, “Jurassic World”
serves not only as ideal kiddy fare, but also a great way to interest them in
dinosaur memorabilia. Ultimately, as far as adults are concerned, the
pedestrian “Jurassic World” exemplifies a case of suspense not guaranteed.